Moundridge boys pull away from Sedgwick

Friday

Dec 14, 2012 at 10:59 PMDec 14, 2012 at 10:59 PM

By Mark Schnabel Newton Kansan

SEDGWICK — The Moundridge Wildcat boys’ basketball team used a strong second half to get by the Sedgwick Cardinals 52-38 Friday in non-league play between two Heart of America League schools in Sedgwick. Moundridge used runs in the third and fourth quarters to pull away from the Cardinals. “Our defensive pressure finally got us in some situations where we caused some turnovers and got some numbers baskets,” Moundridge coach Vance Unrau said. “We battled on the boards. I have to hand it to Kyle Huxman, He had eight rebounds off the bench for us tonight. He played solid for us. He battled on defense inside. I can’t say enough about him. We had good balance tonight. We shared the ball well. (Sedgwick post Logan) Thompson is a load. You can’t help too much on him. (Chris) Agee, (Connor) Tobisch and (Drake) Standefer are solid shooters from the outside. They are physical.” Moundridge had just seven turnovers for the game. Sedgwick had 14. “We took care of the ball,” Unrau said. “That’s part of being solid. The only reason we had turnovers was when we tried to force it inside.” Moundridge, 4-1, was led by Daniel Ratzlaff with 20 points, followed by Tyler Kaufman with 13. Sedgwick, 4-1, was led by Agree with 13 points, hitting three of four from 3-point range. “The third quarter was the difference,” Sedgwick coach Darren Crumrine said. “We didn’t get any rebounds or loose balls. We made some stops on defense, but we didn’t finish the possession. We battled some injuries and had some guys who weren’t able to practice. They sped us up. We didn’t execute the way we practice. (In the fourth quarter,) the legs went and the shots stopped going down. I was happy with Chris Agee. This was his first start. Logan was Logan. He gave it his all tonight. He was a focus of what we were doing out there. Having Dalyn (Anderson) go out in the first half hurt us. He is hard to replace.” Moundridge jumped out 6-2, followed by a 6-1 Cardinal run. A Hunter Enyart layup put Moundridge up 9-8 at the end of the quarter. Sedgwick led by as many as four in the second quarter. Sedgwick took the lead with 1:28 left in the half on a Kyler Summers layup. A Kyle Huxman layup with 30 seconds left in the half put the Wildcats back up by one at intermission, 20-19. Sedgwick was eight of 18 shooting in the first half. Moundridge was seven of 21, but outscored Sedgwick 5-0 from the free throw line. Trailing 24-22 early in the third quarter, Moundridge made an 11-2 run for the Wildcats’ biggest lead of the game. Sedgwick took a time out, but the Wildcats added two more points to the run before Greer Chandler broke it with a pair of free throws. A Ratzlaff jumper at the buzzer kept Moundridge up by eight, 39-31. Sedgwick scored first in the fourth quarter on an Agee jumper. Moundridge countered with a Ratzlaff trey. A Ratzlaff 10-foot jumper put the Wildcats up by 10 with 4:24 remaining in regulation. Sedgwick came back with shots by Logan Thompson and Chandler. Moundridge was able to run the clock from 3:19 to 1:24, when Ratzlaff hit two free throws. Thirteen seconds later, Kaufman hit one of two free throws. Kaufman hit two free throws with 24.9 seconds to play to put the game out of reach. Moundridge ends the calendar year hosting Bennington Tuesday. Sedgwick plays Tuesday at Inman, followed by a home game Friday against Andale. “Bennington has two solid guards back, and a transfer that will play inside,” Unrau said. “They are a very balanced team. I look for them to be right in the top one, two or three in the league. The schedule won’t allow us to take any time off. There is no room for error.” “This is a stretch for us,” Crumrine said. “We’ll try to fix some things on Monday and get back to work on Tuesday.”MOUNDRIDGE (4-1) — Lorimor 2 0-0 0, 4; Washington 0 0-2 0, 0; Higgins 1 0-0 1, 2; Gallegos 0 0-0 0, 0; Wadley 0 0-0 0, 0; Kaufman 2 (1) 6-8 0, 13; Ratzlaff 5 (2) 4-5 2, 20; Huxman 3 0-2 2, 6; Frazer 1 0-0 2, 2; Schmidt 0 0-0 0, 0; Enyart 2 1-2 4, 5; TOTALS 16 (3) 11-19 11, 52. SEDGWICK (4-1) — C.Agee 2 (3) 0-0 3, 13; Hilliard 0 0-0 0, 0; Tobisch 0 (1) 0-0 2, 3; Standefer 1 (1) 0-0 2, 5; Anderson 0 0-0 3, 0; Liby 1 0-0 3, 2; Chandler 2 2-2 2, 6; Summers 1 0-0 0, 2; Thompson 3 1-2 4, 7; Mo.Gardner 0 0-0 1, 0; TOTALS 10 (5) 3-4 20, 38. Moundridge 9 11 19 13 —52 Sedgwick 8 11 12 7 —38